14 year old house. This problem is in one bathroom only and it is the
one on the north side of the house. Very cold climate. When it is
really cold and you flush the toilet, you hear gurgling sounds from the
sink, Jacuzzi, and shower. Unless you turn on all the taps and let the
water run for about 2 minutes (real pain in the middle of the night),
the bathroom starts smelling like a sewer and permeates the whole house
if you don't catch it in time, I am guessing this is methane gas? We
thought the vent could be blocked so we have in the past poured water
down the vent and it did not seem to be blocked. Can anyone out there
help?

wrote:

14 year old house. This problem is in one bathroom only and it is the
one on the north side of the house. Very cold climate. When it is
really cold and you flush the toilet, you hear gurgling sounds from the
sink, Jacuzzi, and shower. Unless you turn on all the taps and let the
water run for about 2 minutes (real pain in the middle of the night),
the bathroom starts smelling like a sewer and permeates the whole house
if you don't catch it in time, I am guessing this is methane gas? We
thought the vent could be blocked so we have in the past poured water
down the vent and it did not seem to be blocked. Can anyone out there
help?


Does the odor only occur in freezing weather?
If so, the vent connection is probably freezing up.
But what to do? Short term, maybe run a hose
to the roof terminal and run hot water down the vent.

Long term, you'd have to investigate how the drains and vent
are routed. Does it look like they might be in the
exterior wall?

It's also possible that there is some solid substance
blocking the vent connection to the sink/tub.
That could be *very* tricky to snake out without
at least some disruption to the wall.

Jim

wrote in message
oups.com...

14 year old house. This problem is in one bathroom only and it is the
one on the north side of the house. Very cold climate. When it is
really cold and you flush the toilet, you hear gurgling sounds from the
sink, Jacuzzi, and shower. Unless you turn on all the taps and let the
water run for about 2 minutes (real pain in the middle of the night),
the bathroom starts smelling like a sewer and permeates the whole house
if you don't catch it in time, I am guessing this is methane gas? We

Learn the sewerage system as a whole . . .
1. Each house's waste pipe network has at least one
"stack vent" to the outside (usually up through the roof)
to dissipate smells.
2. Efficient operation of this system requires at
least a gentle breeze. During cold spells in the
Canadian winter there is often no breeze at all --
so the smell-dispersion system does not work as
designed. (This happens here about once every
winter for a three-day period.)
3. It is unusual for the sewage gas smell to be
concentrated in any one room. Gravity causes
sewage gases to fall towards ground level so (in
time) smell is worst in the basement -- but generally
throughout the house and outdoors as well, not
concentrated iin any one room.

Ask your neighbours if they have the same problem.
We do, and I planned to fit rotating turbine exhaust
covers on the vent stacks when the house was reroofed,
but plumbing suppliers had none to fit.
--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

Don Phillipson wrote:
wrote in message
oups.com...

14 year old house. This problem is in one bathroom only and it is the
one on the north side of the house. Very cold climate. When it is
really cold and you flush the toilet, you hear gurgling sounds from the
sink, Jacuzzi, and shower. Unless you turn on all the taps and let the
water run for about 2 minutes (real pain in the middle of the night),
the bathroom starts smelling like a sewer and permeates the whole house
if you don't catch it in time, I am guessing this is methane gas? We

Learn the sewerage system as a whole . . .
1. Each house's waste pipe network has at least one
"stack vent" to the outside (usually up through the roof)
to dissipate smells.
2. Efficient operation of this system requires at
least a gentle breeze. During cold spells in the
Canadian winter there is often no breeze at all --
so the smell-dispersion system does not work as
designed. (This happens here about once every
winter for a three-day period.)
3. It is unusual for the sewage gas smell to be
concentrated in any one room. Gravity causes
sewage gases to fall towards ground level so (in
time) smell is worst in the basement -- but generally
throughout the house and outdoors as well, not
concentrated iin any one room.

Ask your neighbours if they have the same problem.
We do, and I planned to fit rotating turbine exhaust
covers on the vent stacks when the house was reroofed,
but plumbing suppliers had none to fit.
--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)